Fini la discrimination basée sur la langue
No more discrimination based on language

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

STM Bus Driver Discriminates Against Elderly Woman According To Witness

***PLEASE NOTE WHEN POSTING THE LINK IT STATES ELDERLY WOMAN WAS THREATENED...THIS WAS CORRECTED THE ELDERLY WOMAN WAS NOT THREATENED BY THE DRIVER SHE WAS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST. WE CORRECTED THE HEADING, HOWEVER IN SOME LINKS IT STILL SHOWS **

This past Sunday on her way to church, Kimlyn's ride on an STM bus started out like any other, quiet and relaxing. Little did she know that the situation was going to get a lot worse really quickly.As she was riding on the 110 Lasalle bus line, she noticed an elderly woman asking the bus driver for directions. The response the elderly woman received from the bus driver was very rude and left her confused without any answer to her query. According to Kimlyn the bus driver refused to help her and replied, "Ici au Québec, on parle français."

Upset at what she had witnessed, Kimlyn approached the bus driver and exclamed, "English people take the bus also, and you should have helped the elderly lady,"The bus driver again repeated the all familiar phrase, " Ici au Québec, on parles français." Kimlyn tried to take a picture of the bus driver and was told by the driver that she would be held until police came if she did that. Kimlyn erased the picture fearing any civil confrontations or trouble with the law.Undeterred by the threat, Kimlyn proceeded to take a few pictures and record an audio clip for evidence as to the attitude of the bus driver. She politely asked where 39th avenue was and was served the following rude response by the bus driver (in french), "If you are not happy call the number, I only speaks french."

What happened at the end of her ride left Kimlyn in total shock. Kimlyn explains "the bus driver then stopped the bus and called in her dispatcher. She then proceeded to lock the bus doors so I would be stuck in the bus. I managed to step out just in time but my handbag got stuck in the door and I had to yank it out.”

“Any paying customer of Montreal's transit system should not be treated in such a fashion, especially a senior citizen. We should be helping our seniors and not let them off the bus confused,” said Mike Kane, founder of putbacktheflag.com, a lobby group fighting for equal rights in Quebec. He continues on to add that "during these tense political times here in Quebec, we receive these stories everyday through our channels and need to bring them to the attention of everyone in order to shed light on how a select portion of our society in Quebec are failing to respect the simple rights of our citizens such as the elderly lady in this story who only needed a little help with directions. “We are requesting that the STM review their policy regarding the inclusion of bilingual drivers where the demographic warrants, it is deplorable that in this day and age minorities and seniors are treated in this manner. Montreal is not only a multi-cultural city, but also a bilingual city and if the bus driver was not able to speak in English she could have at the least politely advised the customer and made a best effort to accommodate and help.

These customers work hard for their money and pay for the service. No one should be treated differently based on race or language."